Storage containers are of growing importance in commerce as more products are being shipped to individual customers. Depending on the product being shipped, the storage container may need to be specially designed to both fit and protect the product. To ship fruits and other perishables, the containers need to protect the fruits from being damaged during shipping and handling. Also, the box needs to have sufficient strength to hold the heavier weight of the fruit and withstand stacking several containers upon each other without crushing from the overall weight.
Conventional boxes tend to be designed for shipping fruit and other product for retail stores and other outlets. These conventional boxes assume that the person receiving the boxes and the product are employees of the retail store or people responsible for receiving large pallets of products at these stores. Accordingly, the boxes may be design to fit on these pallets and moved around using forklifts, hand trucks and other heavy equipment. Once the pallet is received, the boxes are lifted off the pallet and the contents, such as fruit, quickly removed and placed on displays. Often, the individual boxes are not moved far from the pallet hence their design does not have to be appealing to the individual user. Even if the boxes are moved any distance, the grocers and other individuals are generally expected to lift and move heavy boxes as part of their job duties as well as wear protective gloves and other equipment to protect themselves. Very little thought is placed into designing boxes and packaging for fruit and other food stuffs that considers protecting the goods inside but the usability of the container to the end user.
Consequently, it is difficult to ship fruit as gifts in conventional boxes as they may be hard to handle, look cheaply made or generally not be aesthetically appealing. This is often not the impression desired when sending fruit or other perishables as a gift to be placed in a home kitchen or office environment. Unfortunately, the conventional storage containers that are capable of shipping fruit and perishables do not address these and other related issues.